Most of us are aware of the fact that we have too much stuff. We are burdened by our clutter and feel its weight, whether we actively realize it or not. Cleaning, decluttering, hiding clutter, and trying over and over again to get organized gets old quickly. Our closets are completely stuffed to the brim, our toy rooms are disorganized, and our drawers are practically broken because they are so full of ‘stuff’. There is evidence of this all around us.
Today, data about our homes, our shopping preferences, and our spending is continuously gathered. We are overloaded with stuff, according to the research. And it is taking our lives away.
Here are some sometimes startling facts concerning our clutter that will make it clear just how serious of an issue our over- accumulating actually has become.
1. The average home in America contains 300,000 items. (LA Times).
2. Over the past 50 years, the average size of a home in America has nearly tripled. (NPR).
3. And yet, one in ten Americans still rent off-site storage, which has been the commercial real estate sector’s fastest-growing subsegment over the last forty years. (New York Times Magazine).
4. While 25% of homeowners with two-car garages can ‘t actually fit a car inside of them, while 32% can only fit one car (U.S. Department of Energy).
5. Over 50,000 storage facilities are located in the US, which is more than five times the number of Starbucks. There are currently 7.3 square feet of self storage available for each adult, child, and person in the country. Therefore, it is technically physically feasible for every American to stand underneath the entire canopy of self storage roofing simultaneously.(SSA).
6. According to a British study, the average 10-year-old possesses 238 toys, but only plays with 12 of them every day. (The Telegraph).
7.America is home to 3.1% of the world’s children, but they own 40% of the toys that are purchased globally. (UCLA).
8. A typical American female over 18 has 30 garments in her closet, one for each day of the month. That figure was just nine in 1930.(Forbes).
9. The average American household spends $1,700 a year on clothing. (Forbes).
10. 65 pounds of clothing are thrown away annually by the average American.(Huffington Post).
11. A formal savings account is not used by nearly half of American households. (Business Insider).
12. However, there are, on average, as many televisions in our homes as people. And those televisions are on for eight hours and fourteen minutes, or more than a third of the day. But only actively watched for less than a quarter of that time.(USA Today).
13. According to some studies, we now consume twice as much material stuff as we did 50 years ago. (The Story of Stuff).
14. Currently, the 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe account for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent (Worldwatch Institute).
15. Americans donate 1.9% of their income to charitable causes (NCCS/IRS). While 6 billion people worldwide live on less than $13,000/year (National Geographic).
16. Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education (Psychology Today).
17. Shopping malls outnumber high schools. And 93% of teenage girls rank shopping as their favorite pastime (Affluenza).
18. Women will spend more than eight years of their lives shopping (The Daily Mail).
19. Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items.The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list (The Daily Mail).
20. Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on nonessential goods—in other words, items they do not need (The Wall Street Journal).
Surprising stuff right? Or maybe not. Decluttering is not easy, especially if your home spaces are very overstuffed. That’s why so many people put it off. Don’t be one of them anymore. Let Just Organized by Taya help you declutter your home and/or office spaces, and then guide you through a formal plan that will keep your home organized and as clutter free as possible long after we have gone. Book an appointment here to get started.
Working with Taya and her team is easy. You can book an appointment easily on her website, or contact her directly at 832-271-7608
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